Nail Salon Horror Stories
by Mushed Peas
Summary: Cloud only wanted to finish the manicures, get paid and kick the customer out. But of course, all of his clients problems were vented to him as if he could magically cure them with the wave of a nail file. What a pain... S/R, some R/K, L/C


If the smell of the nail polish remover wasn't what was causing his headache, then the girl in front, of him was. It wasn't that Cloud didn't like his job, considering he co-owned the salon '7th Heaven' with his childhood friends Zack and Tifa. The fact was that these people, mainly the female customers, came in expecting him to listen to every little problem that plagued their lives. And some of said problems were ridiculously funny, at least to his sick sense of humor.

For example: a few weeks back, a young woman with mahogany hair had come into the salon to complain about her love life. If Cloud remembered correctly, her name was Kairi and she was currently attending…

"…You know, Radiant Gardens?" Kairi prodded, watching Cloud file the nails on one of her hands while soaking the fingers of her other in a dish of warm tap water, which the salon staff referred to as an exotic bath that was supposed to rejuvenate nail beds.

Cloud glanced up at her briefly, before looking back down to his work to hide the grimace that was tugging lightly at his lips. Great, she really was talking at him. "Who doesn't know Radiant Gardens?" He jeered, setting down his file and got to work on applying the acrylic nailpolish. Did she really think he was that stupid?

Well…

Maybe he was that stupid. Radiant Gardens was to the equivalent of Harvard law school, except for the fact that it was harder to get into and not as well known. This meant that the school was full of stuck up asses who wedged the door open for themselves with a wad of daddy's money. Or they're pretty damn smart.

And compared to them, a mediocre salon owner could be nothing else but stupid.

"Are you listening to me?"

Cloud blinked, snapping out of his daze, only to let out an attractive, "Huh?" The nail stylist mentally cringed as he shot down from stupid to an entirely new level of stupidity that was his and his alone.

The girl's face momentarily curled into an expression of disgust before she continued to spill her problems out to him. Removing her freehand from the bath, she wiped her fingers on a towel and reached down to her Gucci bag (or whatever brand was popular this week) that was leaning against her chair to fish out a wallet. Inside said wallet was a picture of herself and a silver haired man with his arms wrapped around her waist.

"This," She pointed her finger at the platinum blond," Is my fiancé, Riku. We've known each other since our parents became business partners and started to date in private school. Our parents decided to arrange our marriage to help bridge their companies into one, but I truly think they saw we were in love. We would have gotten married either way.."

While she went off into her own dream land of love, sugar plums and happily ever afters, Cloud wiped his hands on a towel and picked up the picture to get a better look. The blond wasn't interested at all in her love life or let alone her life. But something nagged at him as he looked the two over. The photo was a professional shot, taken in a studio with a white backdrop behind them. The couple wore hideous, in Cloud's opinion, white turtlenecks with prancing red elk stitched across the front.

The two seemed like a perfect couple; beautiful, young and rich. So, there seemed to be nothing wrong with this photo. That is until he noticed…

Riku wasn't smiling.

Cloud wouldn't be smiling either if he had been forced into that thing. But it seemed to go far beyond the ugly sweater, as if this grimace had made its comfortable there for quite some time.

The blond blinked in confusion as the picture was ripped out of his hands and stuffed back into Kairi's purse." Are you deaf? " She exclaimed, slapping her hands back onto the table top, twitching impatiently for Cloud to finish up. "You know, all men seem to be deaf when it comes to their girlfriends. I've tried talking to Riku about the wedding but he either has to leave for a project or he completely tunes me out!" Kairi whined.

If Cloud's hands weren't busy fixing Kairi's nails, he'd have patted himself on the back for repressing an eyeroll.

"But he doesn't have a problem listening to that Sora." Kairi ground out, digging her nails into the wooden table top. Cloud reached over and forced her to put her nails back into the bath. There was no way he was going to let her fuck up her nails and endure another hour of this.

"Another girl?" Cloud asked, applying a second coat to her free hand. Kairi laughed bitterly.

"I wish. Sora is a boy."

Cloud froze, glancing up to the dark expression on Kairi's face. Well, this was interesting… The blond was surprised he was taking a tiny interest in this. Of course he'd forget all about her story once she paid him and left.

"Sora, Sora, Sora! That's all he's ever talked about since the…the…slumdog came to the college! I mean, how can someone from such a poor family get that good of an education and get into this place, huh? I think he cheated on the entrance exams and so do all of my friends. We're gonna start a petition to get him kicked of the school." She sneered, blowing on the drying nails of one hands as Cloud applied nail polish to the other.

"Don't you think that's a little harsh?" Cloud murmured, already siding with this Sora person without even knowing a thing about him, aside from the fact that he wasn't wealthy. Even if he did cheat, good for him for outsmarting those stuck up aristocrats.

Kairi glared. "Who asked for your opinion, huh? We can't let horrible people like Sora lower the standards of Radiant Gardens. Even my Daddy, who is in the administration, agrees with me. Are we done here?" She snapped, yanking her hands away and stood up.

Cloud eyed her hands, nervous she might mess up the polish. But there wasn't a thing he could do to stop her. "If you wish it to be."

Kairi smiled coldly. "Well I do. If only Riku had the same mind set as you." She sneered and walked up to Tifa at the front desk to pay. With that, she turned and left with her nose in the air.

Tifa came around the counter and took Kairi's abandoned seat. "Sweet girl." She said sarcastically, watching the door.

Cloud snorted.

"Oh yeah, she left you a tip." Tifa reached into her pocket and handed him a few ones.

"…..That bitch." The blond stuffed the three singles into a ball and raced to the door to give Kairi a piece of his mind, when he collided with a brunet who was walking through door. The boy yelled, falling onto his butt in the doorway and glanced up to the fuming blond.

"Eh heh…Uhm…Hi?"

Cloud glared at him, turning his fury from the already gone bitch to this brat. "What the hell do you want?" He snapped.

The brunet paled nervously and got to his feet, pulling a folded newspaper out of his pocket. "U-uhm…You-you have a listing in the newspaper for part-time help." He whimpered, scared Cloud was going to smack him across the head.

"Oh!" Tifa jumped up and pushed Cloud out of the way to smile down to the boy. "Don't mind him, he's just a grump. I'm Tifa and your hired! Uh…What's your name?"

The boy smiled happily.

"Sora."


End file.
